Fairfax supervisors on Tuesday (Sept. 16) informally confirmed their support of the Interstate 495 Southside Express Lanes project as it moves toward a make-or-break regional vote next month.
Despite concerns about specifics of the 11-mile-long toll-lanes proposal across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, even the most skeptical supervisors said they supported keeping the project moving through the review process.
“I agree that we should continue,” Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck said at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors’ Transportation Committee.
Storck, whose constituents seem split on the concept, said he was not offering blanket support, but would wait to see how the plan evolved.
“The devil is in the details,” Storck said.
Despite concerns raised by county leaders during the presentation, the meeting proved a victory for the Virginia Department of Transportation, which has developed the project as a future public-private transportation partnership.
But the real test will come Oct. 15, when the regional Transportation Planning Board votes on whether to include the project in its Visualize 2050 document.
An affirmative vote keeps the project moving ahead; a negative one kills it.
The final decision likely will come down to whether Maryland representatives on the regional body can be convinced to vote in support.
To date, many leaders in Maryland have been neutral or hostile to the proposal, fearing spillover traffic on roadways in Prince George’s County.
Some Fairfax officials have raised similar concerns about traffic impacts on the Northern Virginia side over the past year, but think they can be worked through. They are hoping Maryland officials come to the same conclusion.
“It is extremely, extremely important we get Maryland to play ball,” said Dranesville Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, who chairs the supervisors’ transportation committee.
VDOT’s plan calls for two toll lanes in each direction to be added on I-495 from the Springfield Interchange east into Maryland. The toll lanes will taper down to one in each direction for the easternmost portion of the Maryland segment, terminating at Md. Route 210.
The proposal calls for a host of bicycle/pedestrian improvements; new bus service from Prince George’s County; and preservation of space on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge for future rail service.
No current general-purpose lanes would be eliminated to make room for the toll lanes.
With the toll lanes, “we’d be able to move more people with fewer vehicles,” said Michelle Shropshire, director of Northern Virginia Megaprojects for VDOT.
Board Chair Jeff McKay, one of the strongest Fairfax backers of the plan, acknowledged concerns about traffic spillover. But he said new lanes would improve performance of nearby arterial and neighborhood roads, not force more traffic onto them.
By contrast, “the do-nothing scenario will guarantee you the arterial roads will be jammed beyond compare,” he predicted.
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, the Board’s lone Republican, found himself in alignment with McKay. Herrity said he was “100% behind this project” for its transportation and economic-development potential.
But Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who has been among the most hesitant to embrace the proposal, was not yet fully convinced.
“I’m very concerned about the impact” to surrounding roads, he said.
Lusk also believes the proposed improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians “are not as expansive as they could be.”
Like others, Lusk said Maryland officials seem as yet unwilling to partner on the project.
“Hopefully we’ll get to a place where Maryland understands” the value of the plan, he said. “I hope we can have this move forward.”
If the project ultimately is built, and if the Metro system eventually adds rail service across the Potomac River via the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, two of the four toll lanes would need to be removed for transit.
That has led some opponents of the VDOT plan to argue rail will never happen. But McKay, among others, said he was certain that if Metro needed the middle of the bridge for trains, the space would be available.
“I don’t know how much clearer we can make that,” he said. “It’s crystal clear to me.”
